NRWA Dam Removals in Massachusetts Presentation PDF

Across New England, aging and unsafe dam infrastructure has led to an increase in dam removals. These dam removals can provide significant public safety and ecological benefits, from a reduced risk of flooding to restored river connectivity. Supported by the MA Division of Ecological Restoration, the Nashua River Watershed Association offered educational talks about dam removals in Massachusetts, covering a general overview of why and how unsafe dams are removed, and what changes you might expect to see in your community as a result. Presentations were made possible in part by a grant from the MA Division of Ecological Restoration. View NRWA 2024 Dam Removal Presentation slideshow PDF.

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Using Nature to Adapt to Climate Change in the Nashua River Watershed

The NRWA is working with the communities of Ashburnham, Fitchburg, Groton, Leominster, and Pepperell to understand local climate change issues and ways that we can use Nature-based Solutions to address those issues. Citizen input is key to the process as NRWA, town leadership, and consultants work to identify specific sites and solutions to help each  community become more climate resilient. The concepts developed in these five communities will then be applied to create a Nashua River Watershed Nature-based Solutions Plan with tools accessible to all of our watershed communities. This project is funded by a Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant. Learn more about this project and Nature-based Solutions.

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NRWA 2022 Water Report

The Nashua River Watershed Association is pleased to share our 2022 Water Report.  This new report analyzes the results of our 2022 water monitoring season covering topics such as: what do we study and why? what do the results tell us about the health of our waterways? what sections of rivers or streams are facing water quality challenges? The report is detailed and provides supporting images, graphs, and charts. 

Thank you as always to our team of volunteer water monitors.  In 2022, they collected 877 individual surface water samples.  Their dedication makes our work to protect our waterways possible. This Report is dedicated to all of you.

Read the NRWA’s 2022 Water Report.

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NRWA 2023-2028 Strategic Plan

The NRWA is pleased to share its 2023-2028 Strategic Plan, a guide to our priorities for our next five years. The Plan is the result of months of conversations, partner listening sessions, and a survey of supporters. We asked for your input, we listened, and your feedback is reflected in this directional piece. We look forward to working with you to achieve these goals. View online.  Download single page for print.  

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Nashua River Watershed Association Statement on MassWildlife’s Proposed Oak Woodlands Restoration at Squannacook River Wildlife Management Area

The MA Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) has proposed an Oak Woodlands Restoration project on 215 acres at the Squannacook River Wildlife Management Area (SRWMA), which will result in altering the current forested landscape to an open woodland. The project would require significant clearing of the existing forest, periodic fire management, and herbicide applications.  For a more detailed description of the goals of the proposed project and restoration activities, please see: mass.gov/info-details/oak-woodland-restoration-at-squannacook-river-wma. 

The Nashua River Watershed Association (NRWA) has been closely keeping track of this proposed project and wishes to share the following significant attributes of the SRWMA project site, which MassWildlife has indicated would be Phase 1* of a multi-phase undertaking:

  • Abuts ~2 miles of the federally-designated Squannacook Wild & Scenic River, which is also a state-designated Coldwater Fisheries Resource; 
  • Is within the state-designated Squannassit Area of Critical Environmental Concern; and 
  • Is a Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Priority Habitat Area.

  • Meets MA DEP state-designated Outstanding Resource Water Massachusetts Surface Water Quality Standards [314  CMR 4.04(3)

  • Is included in the Squannacook-Nissitissit Rivers Sanctuary Act (MGL, Part I, Title XIX, Chapter 123A, Section 17)

  • Is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries “Essential Fish Habitat”

  • Is a MA DFW Wildlife Management Area Reference Stream

  • US Geological Survey (USGS) gage on the Squannacook River was used as a least impacted site to set flow policy for the state’s Water Management Act. The river is also used as a “clean water” least impacted site by MA DEP’s SMART monitoring program. Water quality information from this site was used in the development of statewide Water Quality Standards including nutrients and pollutant loading analysis.

  • ~50 acres of Shirley Zone 1 Municipal Wellhead Protection Area (a 1,000 foot zone extending from wellhead)  

  • Subject property partially overlays a medium yield aquifer ½ mile upstream from the W. Groton Water Supply District public wellheads.

This site has long been recognized as an area worthy of the highest-level protection and preservation for its existing outstandingly remarkable environmental resource values. Therefore, proposed alteration of the site should be subject to particularly rigorous analysis.

In February of 2022 the NRWA requested that MassWildlife consider at least a three-year moratorium on advancing the proposed project while MassWildlife, NRWA, and other partners: 

  • Identify alternate sites that meet MassWildlife’s state-wide goals for Oak Woodland Habitat;
  • Undertake additional studies on SRWMA; and 
  • Assess the impact of the scale of the proposed project. 

Through dialogue with MassWildlife, the NRWA understands that MassWildlife cannot agree to a moratorium.  MassWildlife has communicated a commitment to transparency and to proceeding on a timeline with opportunities for site walks and public engagement. 

In addition, public comment periods which are required as part of local and state permitting would precede any actual site work by MassWildlife.  Opportunities for comments would occur at both Shirley and Townsend Conservation Commission meetings, and potentially be associated with an Environmental Notification Form (ENF) and Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) review.  After reviewing forthcoming documents, the NRWA will offer detailed comments during the public comment periods as they arise.

* The NRWA notes that potential future Phases of the proposed project have not yet been described, but that the entire Squannacook River Wildlife Management Area encompasses a total of more than 1,300 acres.

 

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Chapter 4 Providing Education video link

NRWA 50th Anniversary Video Series

In 2019, the NRWA celebrated its 50th Anniversary.  As part of our celebration, we created a series of six short videos looking at where we began, where we are and where we are going in the future. We hope you enjoy this look at NRWA and what we accomplish together! Thank you!

Chapter 1:  The Beginning (2:38 min.)
Chapter 2:  Protecting Water (2:28 min.)
Chapter 3:  Protecting Land (2:20 min.)
Chapter 4:  Providing Education (1:55 min.)
Chapter 5:  Supporting Recreation (1:49 min.)
Chapter 6:  Looking Forward (2:31 min.)

Thank you to our 50th Anniversary Sponsors for making this series possible: Presenting Sponsor, Rollstone Bank & Trust, and Anniversary Sponsors, CanAm Machinery and Enterprise Bank.

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  Pulling invasive water chestnut by hand from a canoe

Controlling Invasive Water Chestnut

The NRWA has been working with the state and local entities, as well as volunteers to control the infestation and spread of invasive water chestnut in the Nashua River.  Learn more.

View new video "NRWA Water Chestnut Pull: Volunteers in Action. (3:14 min) produced by Max McCormick of NorthPoint Productions.

Climate change projections modeled by NASA (2017)

Climate Change Causes

The Science Behind Our Changing Climate

To gain an understanding of what is causing our climate to change, let us take a brief look at measurements that scientists such as those at NASA and the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been tracking for many years.

Scientists are in agreement that the global climate is rapidly warming and that the causes are rooted in human activity, predominantly combustion of fossil fuels and land use changes such as deforestation. Some of the clearest evidence that global climate change is occurring and is being caused by human activity comes from carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere. The following graph shows atmospheric CO2 levels over the past 800,000 years:

Graph of historic CO2 levels from NASA.gov 

Historical levels of carbon dioxide. This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO2 has increased since the Industrial Revolution. (https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/)

It is evident that while atmospheric CO2 levels do naturally fluctuate, today’s levels are the highest in millennia. Carbon dioxide levels are much higher than they would otherwise be if humans were not burning so much fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal), which give off CO2 when they burn.

By studying hundreds of thousands of years of geological data, scientists have shown that temperatures increase when CO2 levels increase, so the current spike in carbon dioxide is certain to result in a rapid additional increase in global temperature.

 Historic temperature graph from paleoclimate data to present from NASA.gov

Historical temperature levels. Temperature histories from paleoclimate data (green line) compared to the history based on modern instruments (blue line) suggest that global temperature is warmer now than it has been in the past 1,000 years, and possibly longer. (Graph adapted from https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/GlobalWarming/page3.php)

The paleoclimate record reveals that the current climatic warming is occurring much more rapidly than past warming events.

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

The greenhouse effect refers to the retention of the sun's warmth in the Earth's lower atmosphere by greenhouse gases. These gases (primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) act as a thermal blanket for the planet, warming the surface to what has been a life-supporting global average of 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius). The recent rapid increase in greenhouse gases has resulted in the atmosphere trapping more solar radiation and, in turn, raising the global temperature. There are three main sources of greenhouse gases:

  • Carbon in Fossil Fuels: A major source of carbon in our atmosphere has been from the accumulation in the earth, over eons, of decayed organic matter from plants. Its longest-lasting deposits are coal, oil, and natural gas. Under natural conditions, these types of carbon slowly accumulated and remained stored in the Earth. However, over the past two centuries or so, humans have been extracting them and utilizing these “fossil fuels” for energy, by burning them for transportation, heating, and industrial purposes. Thus, carbon that took millions of years to be taken up from the atmosphere and accumulate underground gets released back into the atmosphere in a short period of time. The rate of extraction and burning has increased over recent decades, adding to atmospheric CO2 levels.
  • Plants and the Carbon Cycle: Changes in land use, such as deforestation, have reduced the overall number of green plants on earth available to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Green plants absorb CO2 through their leaves and convert it to energy-rich organic compounds in the process of photosynthesis. Trees, for example, use those compounds to form their woody stems and roots. Thus, as plants grow, carbon gets stored in them. When they die, that carbon gets decomposed by microorganisms and fungi, with the result that a significant fraction gets stored in the soil in the form of organic matter. A portion of that carbon gets released back into the atmosphere as CO2, where it can then be taken up again by plants. This circular process is known as the carbon cycle. But the loss of forests worldwide (deforestation) to other uses such as mining, agriculture, urban and suburban sprawl, has led to fewer forested acres to sequester and store the ever-increasing amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, with less stored in plant tissue or in the soil.
  • Methane Gas: Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas that is released to the atmosphere as a result of the natural fermentation of organic matter (for example from swamps). However, increasingly it is being emitted by ruminants (e.g., cattle, sheep, goats, and their relatives) as the world's population expands its need for food, from  landfills, and from the extraction and leakage of natural gas from wells and pipelines. It has also been predicted and hypothesized that as temperatures rise, methane trapped by permafrost in northern boreal forests and methane trapped beneath the oceans will begin to be released into the atmosphere.

The vast majority of scientists agree that combustion of fossil fuels is the single largest driver of rising temperatures and climate change. If the release of CO2 is not slowed, the costs to society of addressing its impacts will become staggering. The increasing availability of renewable forms of energy, such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power, offers options for meeting energy needs. Fortunately, the cost of renewable energy can be competitive with gas and oil.

Banner graphic: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-releases-detailed-global-climate-change-projections.

Climate Change References

Climate Central: https://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics

Climate Change: How do we know? https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

Global Climate Change: Evidence and Causes: https://globalclimate.ucr.edu/resources.html#q2

How is today’s warming different from the past?  https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/GlobalWarming/page3.php

U.S. Forest Carbon Storage, Carbon On Line Estimator (COLE):  https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/carbon/tools/#cole

Frumhoff, P.C., J.J. McCarthy, J.M. Melillo, S.C. Moser, and D.J. Wuebbles. 2007. Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast: Science, Impacts, and Solutions. Synthesis report of the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment (NECIA). Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)

 

Please check regional sources of information to stay abreast of the latest local, state, and federal programs and legislation concerning climate impacts, as they are frequently evolving.

Climate Impact Mitigation and Adaptation Overview References

Nature-Based Solutions

UN Global Compact in the 2019 Climate Action Summit: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/take-action/events/climate-action-summit-2019

Carbon Sequestration

U.S. Forest Carbon Storage, Carbon On Line Estimator (COLE): https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/carbon/tools/#cole

Where does carbon go?  http://changingclimate.osu.edu/assets/pubs/articles/accounting-for-carbon.pdf

Marc G. Kramer, Kate Lajtha, Anthony Audfenkampe. Depth trends of soil organic matter C:N and 15N natural abundance controlled by association with minerals. Biogeochemistry, 2017; DOI: 10.1007/s10533-017-0378-x

Soil and the Carbon Cycle (figure):  https://serc.carleton.edu/eslabs/carbon/5a.html#:~:text=Soil%20Carbon%20Storage%3A%20Carbon%20balance,and%20carbon%20losses%20by%20respiration.&text=Humus%20is%20formed%20when%20soil,that%20reside%20in%20the%20soil.

Forest Carbon: An essential natural solution to climate change:  https://masswoods.org/caring-your-land/forest-carbon

Climate Change Response Network, Forest Adaptation Webinar Series (January 16, 2020 – August 13, 2020): https://forestadaptation.org/learn/forest-adaptation-webinar-series

Forests of the Nashua River watershed seen from the top of Mt. Watatic in Ashburnham, MA - photo by Richard Brockelman

Mitigating Impacts Through Carbon Sequestration

New England has one of the most extensive forested landscapes in the United States, storing a tremendous amount of carbon. By sequestering and storing carbon, forests can be one of the main ways we can mitigate against the adverse impacts of climate change, if we conserve and manage them well.

Where Does Carbon Go? graphic from Ohio Sea Grant

Where Does Carbon Go? A forest’s carbon pool, whether in the Great Lakes or the Northeast, is distributed with slightly more stored belowground in roots and the soil than aboveground in trunks, branches, and leaves. (Kramer et al. 2017)

In addition to direct storage of carbon in trunks and roots of trees and other vegetation, natural systems can sequester large amounts of carbon in the soil. According to a 2017 study at  Washington State University, the uppermost three feet of soil holds three times as much organic carbon as the total amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Studies indicate that, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, land use change and poor soil management have released more than a hundred billion tons of carbon from the soil, a major contribution to total atmospheric carbon.

Up to twenty percent of carbon fixed by photosynthesis in plants is exuded into the soil through roots. Fungi, including mycorrhiza, bacteria, and other organisms in healthy soil are essential to the process of transforming and storing carbon, mostly as organic matter, in the soil. Trees, shrubs, and meadow grasses can all be effective at sequestering and storing carbon in the soil.

Balance of carbon in soil - graphic by Nature Education 

Carbon balance in soil. Carbon balance within the soil (brown box) is controlled by carbon inputs from photosynthesis and carbon losses by respiration.  Decomposition of roots and root products by soil fauna and microbes produces humus, a long-lived store of soil organic carbon.  © 2012 Nature Education. All rights reserved.